The letters contain many discussions about lecture fees, which ranged from $75 per
night for J.J. Pinkerton's "Sir Philip Sidney the Gentlemen" to $300 an evening for
a Charlotte Cushman reading ("tickets $1.50 each"). Author Abby Sage Richardson declares
(13 Apr. 1872) that she receives $100 for an evening, however she prefers to manage
her own business affairs and offers Bliss a supply of her circulars. Writes Robert
Laird Collier (7 Feb. 1871): "My lecture on 'The Follies of the Woman Movement' I
can give at $100 every night of the month should I care to go East, but I do not wish
to be so far from home now," while Victoria Woodhull suggests (29 Dec. 1873):

I will lecture in such places as you may appoint for one hundred & fifty dollars per
night. I already have several engagements in Wis. at that price; or I will lecture
thirty consecutive nights for one hundred dollars per night (Chicago & St. Louis excluded
from both).

A few of the prospective clients ask Bliss' advice concerning appropriate subject
matter for possible lectures. B. Gratz Brown (20 Sept. 1882) inquires about the feasibility
of a lecture tour on prohibition, while Ned Buntline proposes (13 Apr. 1871) several
topics, including "America for Americans" and "Woman as Angel and as Friend." Asked
by Bliss to supply newspaper articles for advance publicity, Buntline writes (15 June
1871):

I do not send you Press notices, because I deem it beneath my position as a lecturer
and writer to depend on them for calling up an audience. I am sufficiently well known
to have an audience wherever I go, whether it be from curiosity to see what kind of
animal I am, or from a knowledge of my capability, I cannot say. It is enough for
me that it is!

Citing the discomforts of railway travel and primitive accommodations, many correspondents
(Hutchinson, Lewis, Logan) ask Bliss to schedule a cluster of events in cities which
are in close proximity to one another, best summed up by David Swing (14 Oct. 1876)
as "$100 places and cosy of access." Two letters in particular suggest the hardships
associated with a lecture tour of the 19th century American West. John Wesley Powell
writes from Milwaukee during mid-tour that Bliss should not schedule any more lectures
using the agreed upon terms, as he is unable to meet his expenses (4 Mar. 1872): "I
shall not receive enough to pay hotel bills here." And temperance reformer D.R. Locke
sends this desperate message (28 Feb. 1881):

Close up as quickly as you can. Riding all night an freight cars and being away from
my business, don't pay me at $50 a day
I never should have started had I got my route in time, and found the terms that you
made. It don't pay me. I only started because I did not want to disappoint societies,
but now that I have yielded that point and filled all that was originally arranged
for cancel and stop till next fall, when a route can be made early enough to make
it satisfactory. I have 156 miles to travel tomorrow for $50. And I have to get up
at 5 a.m., to do it for two days. Close it up at once. I am tired, and won't do it.
I have filled every point thus far, by riding nights and driving overland, but I can't
do it but a few days longer.

Among the correspondence are several letters of refusal, a few of which cite an already
crowded lecture schedule (Kilpatrick), poor health (Russell H. Conwell), and a reluctance
to travel so far for so long (Greenwood, Collier). And while many of the lecturers
admit some curiosity about the West, Benjamin Franklin Taylor (1 Nov. 1873) makes
no such claim: "I cannot think of going to Minnesota. Being compelled to visit Nebraska,
that is quite all the Northwestern experience I desire."

Arrangement of the Collection

Letters are arranged chronologically.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:
The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require
advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance
concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and
all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from
any
materials in this collection.